Major Shatter Bust Points To Rising East Coast Use

East Coast law enforcement officers are getting a little ticked at all that concentrate they’ve been finding lately. Authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia seized a truck hauling nearly a million dollars worth of cannabis products near D.C.’s Dulles International Airport on Monday, according to the Washington Post. Among the contraband discovered was 15 pounds of shatter, which the Post valued at over $400,000 by itself.

The raid points to a dramatic rise in the use of shatter and other hash oils in the East. Loudon’s sheriff spokesman told the Post that authorities started finding marijuana in the area about a year ago, though we’ll add that it’s likely it existed there before law enforcement knew how to recognize the substance. The growing presence of hash oil continued until culminating in the largest seizure of concentrate in the area’s history this week.

D.C. authorities, somewhat amazingly, have said that they haven’t run across any shatter, but other representatives of 5-0 have gotten bent out of shape about the new drug on the street. The nearby Montgomery, Fairfax, and Prince George’s Counties have all been knee deep in the stuff. The big concern, as usual, is not over the use of wax, but the risks of explosions, property damage, and injury associated with the manufacturing of it.

“Landlords, homeowners and tenants who want to protect their lives, property and fortunes need to rally against any law that will allow the commercialization of marijuana in our nation’s capital,” landlord and blogger Kimberly Hartke wrote in a Post column earlier this year. “The fact that it’s available around the country is a concern for law enforcement,” said DEA spokesman Michael Shavers on the subject.

But concentrate advocates maintain that as long as the substance is properly regulated and consumers educated on its effects, it is harmless, even hugely medical beneficial. Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project pointed out that no one has ever died from ingesting cannabis in any form (nor is it scientifically possible). “As long as people are educated about the proper dosage, it hasn’t presented any problem,” said Fox. He added that regulation of wax’s production could eliminate most dangers inherent in the process, “so [that] businesses are doing it, instead of people making it themselves.”